PersonaThe American
by Zane Cross
Summary: A mysterious force brings back the dark hour as American Leon Walker comes to Gekkoukan High under the transfer student program. Will Leon find out who brought about the dark hour, and will he be strong enough to defeat him/her?
1. Midnight Misgivings

Persona: The American

Chapter 1

Midnight Misgivings

A young man of around sixteen years old stepped out of the airport terminal, his leather bag hung loosely around his shoulder, and his outward appearance was calm. The teenager brushed a strand of hair out of his well cut, tan face, revealing a pair of mismatched eyes; one being an olive green color, while the other was chestnut brown.

He looked at his chalk-white digi-watch (that's what he liked to call it) and saw that it was just half an hour before midnight. He pulled a card from his jeans pocket that had the formal handwriting of the Chairman of the apartment complex—and the school—he had been assigned to. It reads as follows: _Dear Leon, congratulations on being selected to stay with us until you graduate. As a show of our hospitality, we welcome you to the Gekkoukan complex, where you will be able to socialize with many of your classmates after school. We hope you have a great stay. Sincerely, Mitsuru Kirijo. P.S. Meet with me in the lounge as soon as you can to receive your room key. _

Leon replaced the letter into his pocket, taking care as not to crumple it up. He was pretty sure that he would need it to prove his identity whenever he arrived.

**Gekkoukan Complex**

A woman, who looked no older than twenty and had fiery red hair cascading down her shoulders, was filling out mountains upon mountains of paperwork. Seems like another all-niter, she thought, bored out of her mind. At first, she read each of the papers carefully, but now she just put her signature on whatever and didn't bother to check it.

"Losing sleep just isn't healthy," Mitsuru grumbled as she slapped another paper into the 'done' pile on her mahogany desk.

A knock on her door snapped her out of her stupor. The knock was followed with a voice that asked, "Hey Mitsuru, do you know when the new guy is supposed to arrive?"

"No Akihiko!" She snapped a little too harshly, and she immediately regretted it.

"Alright, alright, sheesh. A guy asks a question and he gets his head bitten off instead." Akihiko grumbled from the other side of the door.

"Sorry, but I'm a little on edge," She said, placing another piece of paper that had her signature on it in the pile.

"I can tell," He said.

Mitsuru decided to change the subject, "Come to think of it, I do find it rather odd that our guest hasn't arrived yet."

"Should I go out looking for him?" Akihiko inquired.

"Give him a few more minutes, if he doesn't arrive, then you can go search for him." Mitsuru replied, stretching to get rid of the cramps that had accumulated throughout the day of non-stop papers.

"Okay, I'll let you know if he gets here," Akihiko said.

Mitsuru gave her thanks before returning back to her work.

Akihiko walked back down to the main lobby, his jacket suspended over his shoulder. He pondered what the new guy would be like. We'll soon find out, he thought as he took a seat on the leather couch.

"Hey Akihiko-senpai," A guy who wore a baseball cap, had a fully grown goatee, and barely looked older than nineteen walked into the room.

"Hey Junpei, what's up?" Akihiko greeted him.

"Oh nothing," He said. "How's Mitsuru-senpai?"

Akihiko shook his head, "The stress is really getting to her. She needs to take a break and quick."

Junpei smiled and said, "Can we go back to the resort for our vacation then?"

Akihiko couldn't resist a smirk as he replied, "I'll ask her. She'll probably welcome the time off." He remembered the time they had went to the resort that Mitsuru's father owned when he was still alive, now it belonged to her.

"I'm going out," Junpei said, grabbing a coat.

"Well since you're going, can I have a favor?" Akihiko called to him before Junpei left the building.

Junpei took a while before answering, "Yea, what'cha need?"

"Well, it's the transfer student. He hasn't arrived, and I'm becoming a little worried."

"Sure thing, I'm dying to meet the guy myself," Junpei said, grinning from ear to ear as he stepped out the front door.

**Somewhere on Port Island**

Leon had been inexplicably lost for quite a while now, with no landmarks to help him find his way. He had somehow managed to end up at a pier, where a bunch of people—who Leon had no intention of making friends with—were giving him evil glares.

That didn't bother him though, back in Washington, he dealt with a bunch of punks everyday, and this was no different.

When he hit a dead end, Leon tried to back-track to where he originally started, but found that a circle of those people had cut him off. Even though fear started to bubble within his stomach, Leon forced himself to remain calm.

"Hey guy, you mind tellin' us what you're doin' here?" A guy said in a venomous tone, he put a hand towards his jeans pocket.

Leon raised an eyebrow and replied, "I got lost." This caused an uproar of laughter within the circle. "Now," Leon said, "If you'd be so kind as to step aside." Again, he caused a few snickers to surface.

"Proper, aren't you," One of the girls of the group commented. "Now," She continued, "We'll step aside...for a fee."

"Fine," Leon snorted, then he produced a wallet out of his pocket. He pulled out two ten-dollar bills and asked if they would be enough to allow him passage without harm.

The group inspected them, as if they had never seen money before. It's not that they never saw money before, it's that they never saw the American dollar, and the currency they had always known was yen. That's why they took so long before they turned back to Leon and confronted him.

"What is this?" The girl who had asked for the fee said. "What kind of joke is this?"

Leon shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know what you're talking about. That's one-hundred percent genuine currency."

"Yea, from where you're from, but here, the currency we accept is yen."

"Oh," Leon said dumbly. How could he have not known, after all, it was in the brochure. "Well," Leon said, "Too bad for you cause I don't have any yen."

"Now that is a problem," A guy wearing a black trench-coat came forward and pulled out a switch-blade. Or as Leon called them, a switch.

If Leon didn't deal with crap like this everyday, he might have panicked. But thanks to growing up where people had always demanded money, he was well prepared for scenarios like this. Good thing I've had plenty of training, Leon thought gratefully as he adopted the fighting stance that allowed him to move quickly and keep his balance, not to mention it put some power behind his punches.

Leon shifted his weight onto his knees, brought his open palms up to his face, and forced himself to prioritize targets. _The guy with the switch has to go first. _He posed the biggest threat. And if he learned anything on the street, it was that you take the guy with the weapon out first, and take his weapon if you could.

The guy who was holding the switch-blade—Leon decided to call him Switch—came charging at him as quickly as he could; which was still sluggish compared to Leon's reflexes. Switch brought the blade up, preparing to get some force behind the lethal blow.

As Switch brought the blade down, Leon brought his palm up, redirecting Switch's arm behind his back. Then, Leon took the switch-blade from the guy's grasp, and drove it through the skin; therefore, it brought an ear-splitting scream from Switch's mouth.

It didn't take long for the rest of the group to scatter after they saw one of their comrade's blood on the floor. Leon spat on the ground and commented, "Heh, guess they'll know to never mess with me again."

"Hey!" A guy called out to Leon. Leon turned around to see a guy with a baseball cap, fully grown goatee, and barely looked older than Leon was.

"May I help you?" Leon responded, still holding the switch in a ready position.

"You could," He said, "I'm looking for a guy who goes by the name of Leon Walker. You seen him?"

Leon blinked and said, "Yeah, that's me. And you are?"

The guy pointed a thumb at himself and said, "The name's Junpei Iori, nice to meet ya."

Leon nodded, "Likewise." Then he placed the blade into his pocket, and walked over to Junpei.

"I do have a question, how did you know my name?" Leon asked.

"Akihiko-senpai sent me," Junpei replied. Leon looked at him dumbly, but before he could get a word in, he was interrupted by Junpei. "You don't know who he is, but you'll get to know him soon enough. You're heading to the Gekkoukan complex, right?"

Leon nodded again.

"We better hurry," Junpei explained, "otherwise those guys will come back with more help." Leon didn't argue as he followed Junpei around the intricate buildings (they all looked the same) to where Leon was before he decided to get lost.

But as they turned the corner, Leon's watch beeped for a second before it cut off abruptly. The moon shone brightly, and everything seemed eerier than before. Leon couldn't explain it, the mood just seemed to get darker somehow, as if death lingered in the air. Tension was thick as Leon tried not to lose his calm demeanor. He looked at his watch and noticed that it wasn't working for the first time.

_Did the battery die?_

"Oh shit," Junpei cursed, fear was evident in his voice. Leon had a few questions, but he knew that they would be answered later. "I didn't think this would happen again!"

_Again? So this has happened before._

Junpei took off in full sprint, almost leaving Leon in the midst of whatever it was that was going on. Leon had to run as fast as he possibly could to try and keep up with Junpei. Why is he so fast, Leon thought jealously. Leon had always considered himself to be pretty quick, but he never witnessed speed like that.

When they arrived at the Gekkoukan apartments, Leon was out of breath, and they were trying to recuperate in the main lobby. A silver haired man came from down the stairs and said, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Junpei said when he could speak again, "But this night is exhibiting all of the same symptoms before..." He trailed off. Apparently, whatever he was talking about was too painful to bring up, Leon reasoned.

Then the silver haired guy took notice of Leon, in lite of the situation. "Oh, are you the transfer student?"

Leon nodded, put his hand up, and said, "Why yes I am. And who might you be?"

"I'm Akihiko Sanada," He replied, now ushering them closer to him. Leon guessed that it had something to do with the weird circumstances that they found themselves in.

"So, you mind tellin me what's goin on?" Leon asked.

"Later, right now, we need to make sure that we're prepared." Akihiko said, and no-one dared to breathe another word. Leon took out his switch, Junpei took up a fighting pose, and Akihiko copied Junpei.

_The tension is really thick right now, almost tangible. _Then an afterthought: _I better get some god-damn answers after all of this. _

As Leon finished that thought, something dropped down from the ceiling, and lunged towards the group.

Leon instinctively brought his knife up and dived out of the way; Junpei tried to take a swing at it with his bare fists but missed; Akihiko was the only one who actually got a hit on it, sending it a few feet back.

It didn't really do much damage, but it was enough to give them some breathing space.

Not for long, however, for the monster quickly recovered and was upon Leon in a second. He tried to attack with the switch-blade, but found it to be utterly useless.

"Artemisia!" A female voice said, then a gunshot and what sounded like shattering glass echoed in the room. Then, all of a sudden, the monster was encased in ice, and then it shattered into a million ice crystals, leaving nothing left of the abomination.

A few hours had passed and everyone's wounds was being treated, but Mitsuru was busy filling Leon in on the details.

"So do you understand?" Mitsuru asked. Leon nodded vigorously and said, "From what I gather, is that this...power—persona—and shadows are the same thing. That is why people with personae can fight them and do damage to these shadows."

"Not to mention," He continued, "that people who have the potential can stay awake during the—dark hour, was it—and they are aware of what happens."

Mitsuru smiled and said, "Very good. Not too many people can catch on this quickly, I'm impressed."

Leon blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, muttering, "It isn't that difficult, especially if a moron like me can grasp the basic properties of this situation."

Then another question popped into his head. "Okay," He said, "If I was awake during the dark hour, then does that mean I have the potential as well?"

"It's very possible," Mitsuru admitted, "After all, you did manage to keep your awareness during the time period."

"Well then," Leon said, "How would I go about summoning my own potential?"

"I don't know, perhaps I can construct a training course that can help you bring out your persona," Mitsuru replied.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Leon said as he grabbed his bag—he managed to hold onto it until they were attacked.

"Before you go," Mitsuru grabbed his shoulder, "You need this to get into your room, correct?" She dangled a key in front of his face. Leon smirked before he gingerly took the key from her fingers and thanked her.

As Leon left the room, Mitsuru whispered, "Leon Walker, you are something else, though I can't put my finger on it."

**Atlus is the soul owner of the persona series, and I only credit Leon Walker to my list of original characters. **

**I thought I would go for a nice change of pace and do a persona story, tell me how you like or hate it. **


	2. First day of school

Persona-The American

Chapter 2

First day of school

It was the first day of school, but that didn't make the weather any cooler. It was around eighty degrees, and people had dressed accordingly, but not out of their uniforms. Many of the students had their blazer's sleeves rolled up to accommodate the warm weather. Though some of the other kids wore their jackets around their waist.

Leon, however, didn't receive a uniform as of yet, and he suspected he would get one a few days after he was enrolled in this establishment. He had asked Mitsuru if their was an extra uniform laying around, but she had told him there wasn't. So, he had to make due with the clothes he had brought, knowing full well that he would be on the receiving end of many glares. His attire just consisted of jeans with a black t-shirt tucked in, white tennis shoes and a white hoodie. Nothing extremely bad, yet he was treated as if he was criminal number one.

_Oh well. As if I care what they think anyway. _

He passed through the double doors, and noticed what he assumed were cubbyholes. But in fact, they were shoe lockers. Much smaller than the lockers back home, he realized.

_If I remember Mitsuru's directions right, then I need to take a left and go through...that door._

He spotted the door that had the words 'faculty office' on it, and walked through. He was greeted by the principal—an elderly man who was in his eighties with a ridiculous comb-over; Mitsuru was there as well.

"Ah Leon, we were just talking about you," Mitsuru said. Her hair was in a ponytail, while she wore a blouse and a lengthy black skirt. "We were just finishing up transferring your file over to our computers."

She typed something in on the computer. Probably making a last minute update. Then she pulled out a sheet filled with information and handed it to Leon.

"It's your schedule," Mitsuru explained, "You'll need it." Leon thanked her before he headed to his classroom. Leon didn't get very far before Mitsuru stopped him. "I need to speak with you after school," She said, a sense of urgency hinted in her tone, "Meet me in the lounge at the Gekkoukan complex." Leon agreed to meet with her, but for now, he had to get to class.

I'm glad these schedules aren't hard to read, he thought gladly as he glanced over the schedule. It wasn't too difficult, after all, he only had to go to one classroom: 2-L.

It didn't take too long for Leon to find his classroom, and not a second too soon. The bell rang immediately after he set foot in the room.

He tried to ignore the sets of eyes boring into his back as he took a seat in the back of the room. Leon did his best to remain calm, but it felt like the time he was in the pier, only in an much smaller space. Leon's fingers hovered over his switch-blade in his pocket. Thankfully, his pants were loose enough for the blade not to show a bulge. Then a thought: _I forgot if I locked the blade in place or not._

"Class, pay attention!" The teacher—a man who was barely out of his twenties—commanded the class. They all returned their attention to him. Must be a strict man, Leon reasoned.

After the first set of problems were finished, the man asked Leon to introduce himself to the rest of the class. Of course, this meant that all of the eyes were once again on him, and Leon wasn't too happy about it. Just once, he would like to meet a teacher who wouldn't ask him about his life.

He stood, cleared his throat, and planned his speech so he wouldn't stumble.

"Hello," He said with feigned happiness, "My name is Leon Walker. I'm pleased to meet you all."

Leon anticipated the inevitable questions that would make him delve deeper into his past than necessary. It wasn't that he minded going into his past, it's the questions themselves that made going back difficult. After all, he knew he wouldn't have all the answers to their insanely difficult Q&A session.

"Hey Leon," One student with a spiked-up mo-hawk raised his hand, "Which part of America did you come from?"

_At least it's an easy question._

"I came from Washington D.C," Leon responded, still keeping up the facade of happiness. Then a girl, who had a nose ring, raised her hand.

"What's with the scar?" She traced a finger over her face to show Leon where the scar was. I must have gotten it from that shadow last night, he thought. Now he needed to come up with a lie, quick, otherwise there would be questions.

"Oh, yes...I ran into trouble on my way here yesterday," Leon explained, "You see, I accidentally went into a pier when I tried to find the Gekkoukan complex. Needless to say, a band of ruffians demanded payment. A few of 'em roughed me up, but I handled them, nonetheless." It was the truth, sort of. Just not the truth you'd expect to hear if you were there with Leon yesterday.

There were murmured agreements. Apparently, this sort of thing has happened before.

"Alright," A girl with a crew cut, jet-black hair that was highlighted with blue streaks, "How come you have different colored eyes?"

Leon had been asked that question many times before, considering that people with different colored eyes are rare in any part of the world. He had answered that question so many times that he actually knew his answer by heart. "My Grandfather," He articulated, "Had mismatched eyes. And it was a very slim chance that anyone in my family would get the same genetics. To be honest, it was a .0003 chance of someone getting the genetic codes from my Grandpa, so I'm surprised I was the one to get them."

**Gekkoukan complex**

"Man, this sucks." Junpei complained. "Why do we have to set up the training grounds?"

Akihiko sighed and explained one more time, "Because Mitsuru was very specific: she wants the new guy to learn how to summon his persona. She believes that the only way to do that is under extreme circumstances where Leon would have no choice but to do so. And we're the only ones around from the old group, asides from Mitsuru, that actually know about personae. We'll be there to show him the ropes if he doesn't get it."

They were setting up hologram-projectors, where it would seem like a shadow was real and could do harm. The only reason why they have this tech was because Mitsuru had it specially constructed by her boys in the lab. Even though it took them a few rushed hours to complete it, it was their best work so far.

"What if Leon can't summon his persona?"

"He'll be able to, trust me."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I just have a gut feeling."

That comment shut Junpei up for awhile.

**Gekkoukan High**

Leon sighed, it was finally lunchtime, yet he wasn't hungry. Just about everybody had gone out to eat, either in the grove where the persimmon tree was, or in the cafeteria. Only one person had come back to eat lunch in the class, and that was the girl with the highlights. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy her company, it was the fact that she was staring at him that made him exceedingly uncomfortable.

_Oi. _

"Do you want any?" She asked, offering some of her food to Leon. That's a nice gesture, he thought.

Leon allowed himself a small smile before saying, "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

"Whatever," She replied, popping a piece of food into her mouth.

"Forgive me," Leon said, "But I have yet to learn your name."

"I'm Giselle DeVaul," She replied. "You're staying at the Gekkoukan, right?" Giselle inquired.

_I assume that 'the Gekkoukan' is slang for Gekkoukan complex. _Then he thought: _DeVaul?_

"Yea," Leon replied. "Okay, completely off topic, isn't DeVaul a more...Italian name than Japanese?"

"Yes, I was born in Venice, but my father, who is part Japanese, had to come back here. He brought me along, and my mother is still in Venice." She seemed excited to share her history with someone.

Now that he really looked at her, she did look more Italian than Japanese. Her naturally tanned skin complimented her hair, and her nut brown eyes seemed to reflect brilliantly in any light.

For a second, Leon's breath stopped, but he caught himself before she could notice. "How I couldn't have noticed before is undeniable stupidity on my part. One of my friends back home was Italian."

She raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow and said in an incredulous tone, "No kidding?"

They kept talking for the remainder of the lunch period, and Leon actually enjoyed himself. He had expected his first day to suck, yet he thoroughly relished his conversation with Giselle. By the end of the day, Leon and Giselle were hanging around at the main gate, and they were letting the time fly by just by talking with each other. Giselle even managed to convince Leon to wear his hair a different style than the messy, spiky style that it already is.

"See you tomorrow," Leon said as he started his trek back to the Gekkoukan complex. Giselle waved bye and headed back to her own house.

Leon checked his watch and noticed that it was around six 'o' clock, and he remembered the appointment he had forgotten to keep. Mitsuru wanted to see him after school, and he completely blew her off.

_Oh shit._

He sprinted as fast as he could, but he still knew the unavoidable punishment that was to come from his lollygagging. He could see it now, and it didn't look pretty. He would burst through the doors, see Mitsuru waiting with a look that said 'I'm going to kill you', and then he would be no more. Leon gulped. He hoped he was just being over-dramatic and prayed that Mitsuru would be forgiving.

Leon basically demolished the doors as he fumbled to the ground, in front of a very displeased Mitsuru.

"I hope you can explain yourself," She said in a tone that very clearly stated 'if you lie to me, I will find out, and you will incur a wrath that you have never before seen'. Leon winced, and he decided that telling her the truth would be a more feasible option than lying to her.

"T-to be per-perfectly honest," Leon stammered. It made no sense, Mitsuru could unnerve him with ease, and he never had any trouble like this before. Maybe it was the way that she composed herself made him lose his cool. "I was with a classmate, Giselle DeVaul, and time just seemed to escape from me."

She mulled that statement over for a few minutes before she said that she believed him, but not to let it happen again. Leon heaved a sigh of relief. He would never forget any plans that he made with Mitsuru ever again; at least, that's what he hoped.

"Now, let's begin the training course," She said with a hint of excitement in her voice.

_Gulp. _

At first, the course wasn't that bad, and it only dealt with learning the shadow's Arcana. But, as Leon got further along, the training get progressively more difficult. It wasn't that he was complaining, he welcomed a challenge, but at one point, they are going to ask too much of him.

When it came to summoning his persona, that's exactly what happened. As he stood there, watching the shadow come at him, and his finger wrapped around the trigger of the evoker—a gun that was used to summon personae—and pulled. The gunshot happened, but nothing else did. And before the shadow was but arms length away, the program cut off abruptly.

"What happened?" Leon said, dumbfounded.

"Your persona didn't appear, that's what happened," Akihiko replied, a little disappointed.

"You wanna try again?" Mitsuru asked.

"No I don't want to try again! To hell with it!" Leon exploded, his face contorted in anger. He stormed out of complex, dropped the evoker, and left a confused group of S.E.E.S to figure out what that was all about.

"Should I fetch him?" Akihiko asked.

"No, it'll be better for him to work this out on his own," Mitsuru said firmly.

Leon shoved his hands into his coat pocket, angrily muttering about how unfair it was that he couldn't call on his persona while the others could do it with ease. What did he do wrong? He pulled the trigger, and still, his persona didn't come out. Maybe I just can't summon a persona, he thought miserably; After all, Shuji Ikutsuki couldn't summon his persona either, yet he was able to stay awake during the dark hour.

"Yo Leon!" A voice called out to him from the darkness. He immediately turned his attention to the girl smiling from her bedroom window. That girl was none other than Giselle, and she was a little surprised to see Leon roaming around Port Island this late at night. "What are you doing out?" She asked.

"I'm just trying to clear my head," He replied.

"About what?"

"It's a long story."

"I got time."

"Believe me, you don't."

"Try me."

He considered this for a moment before he said, "Nah."

A few minutes later, and after heavy protesting from Leon, he told Giselle the whole story about personae, shadows, and as expected, she laughed outright, "You really expect me to believe that!"

Leon shrugged his shoulders and retorted, "Not really." But she quickly changed her tone when the dark hour started. She couldn't say anything other than, "Aww, shit."

Leon, in spite of himself, smirked, and said, "Told ya."

He didn't have long to gloat, for a shadow pounced upon them. Leon grabbed his switch-blade, pressed the button, and swung at the shadow. Of course, he missed. The shadow tried to go for Giselle, but luckily, Leon got to her just a few seconds before the shadow attacked the place where she just was.

"Come on!" He commanded, holding his switch in one hand and Giselle's hand in the other. She didn't question him and allowed herself to be pulled roughly around the transformed Port Island.

After what seemed like an eternity of sprinting around buildings, they managed to get themselves into a dead end. They couldn't hightail it out of there because the shadow was, once again, attempting to attack them.

It managed to nick Leon in at least five different places, and blood was oozing from all of his wounds. Just when he thought he was going to pass out, the shadow switched targets and was headed for Giselle.

What happened next seemed to happen in slow-motion, for Leon saw the shadow flying in air at five-centimeters-per-hour, and Giselle was looking on in horror.

Feeling a surge of energy course through his veins, Leon raised his hand to his chest, pushed his thumb and middle finger together, said, "I summon thee, Jester," and snapped his fingers.

**I will go into Jester's details in the next chapter. But for now, you'll have to content yourself with this cliff hanger.**

**Once again, I don't own the persona franchise.**

**Leon and Giselle are my own characters.**

**Thanks for reading.**

**Sincerely,**

**-Zane Cross**

**P.S. I've also got another story idea as well, so if you're a fan, be sure to look out for it.**

**P.S.S. This takes place a few years after the original events of persona 3 fes.  
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	3. Jester

Chapter 3

Jester

"I summon thee, Jester," Leon said as he snapped his fingers. How he knew his persona's name, he'd never know, but what he did know was that he wasn't in control of his own actions. Not now, at least.

A cobalt blue vortex enveloped Leon, a shower of blue sparks flying out from the center of it. From within the vortex, a shadowy figure appeared and hovered over Leon's head. It took a few seconds for it to materialize fully, and when it did, the persona turned out to be a tall and skinny guy with gentleman-like attire: a tattered top-hat and tuxedo suit. His face was covered in chalky-white paint, and his thin ruby-red lips parted to show an insane smile, filled with razor sharp teeth. He lifted a skinless finger and pointed at Leon.

"Thou art I, and I am thou. From the depths of your soul, I emerge. I am Jester, the king's fool," He said in a voice that sounded like gravel was being mashed up in a blender. Not the most pleasant sound in the world; however, Leon wasn't complaining.

_Wow, my own persona. Time to kick some ass._

Jester pointed a bony finger at the shadow, who was inches away from a frightened Giselle, and said, "Burn."

And, like with Mitsuru, the monster was obliterated right before his eyes. Only difference was that the other monster had been frozen; this one was burnt to a crisp.

Jester returned to Leon and disappeared. Giselle was still on the floor, a little dazed from what she had just witnessed, but otherwise completely fine. She suffered a few scrapes and scratches, but those would heal pretty quickly.

Leon walked over to her and offered to help her up. She took his hand and was back on her feet in no time; however, she had a bit of a limp.

"You alright?" Leon asked, worried for his newly-found friend.

"I'll be fine," She responded a little shakily. Nonsense, Leon thought.

"You can lean on my shoulder if you want," He offered. "It seems like you're pretty hurt, so allow me to help."

She shook her head, "No, really, I'm fine." And after that, she stumbled.

Leon, with yare maneuverability, caught her. "Don't be so stubborn," he said firmly, taking her hand and placed it around his shoulder, making it easier to carry her, "You're hurt, and I will help."

Giselle smiled and said, "Who's being stubborn now?"

"Certainly not I," Leon said, trying to keep a straight face.

They kept up this witty banter all the way until they got back to the dorm. She had her wounds treated and looked at until they were absolutely sure that she would be okay.

"Hmm, nothing serious. But you'll need to make sure that you stay off that leg for a while, so you don't cause any serious problems. I think we got a pair of crutches somewhere around here," Mitsuru said.

Leon volunteered to go find the crutches and left the rest of the group to get to know each other better. When Leon came back, they were all laughing and joking around.

_Wonder what I missed._

He gave her the crutches and Leon also offered her to spend the night at the dorm, so she would be safe. "You can even take my bed."

"It would be a more feasible option than sleeping at your house for now," Mitsuru agreed, pondering if she should offer her a room for her to stay in permanently.

Giselle inquired, "That's a nice offer, but where would you sleep?"

Leon replied, "I'll probably crash on the couch. After all, a couch is like a bed to me."

Giselle consented to sleeping in Leon's bed, and Leon occupied the couch.

"You do realize," Leon said when Giselle was up the stairs, "That her parents, whenever they come out of their transmogrification, will be wondering where their daughter went. Especially in the middle of the night. And I have a feeling that I'm going to get murdered if Mr. DeVaul finds out that she was with me."

"Yes," Mitsuru replied, "But I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for that. You see, what you will tell everyone, is that she got locked out of her house, and she didn't want to disturb her father. So she spent the night here."

Leon looked at her in disbelief. "Are you serious?" He asked, "That's the best you could come up with?"

Mitsuru nodded and said, "Unfortunately, yes. It is incredulous, I know, but it will have to do."

"Then answer me this," Leon said, "How do we explain her limp?"

"Hmm," She hmmed, contemplating what she would need to say.

After a few moments of meditation, Mitsuru finally said, "Alright, we'll simply say that she fell out of her window."

Leon was going to retort about how unreasonably stupid that sounded, but he decided against that. "Whatever."

**The Next Morning**

**Gekkoukan complex**

Of course, Mitsuru was already up and about by the time the sun had risen. What with the mountain of paperwork that she had, you'd be up earlier trying to catch up as well. Then again, no matter how hard she worked, Mitsuru never made a dent. Or at least it seemed that way.

Akihiko was up as well, training. The dark hour was back, so he needed to be at his physical best. Junpei was asleep, and so was Giselle. Leon, however, was up earlier, trying to cram for the test he had that day, considering that he forgot to study last night.

When he felt that he knew the material by heart, he ventured out to see what Mitsuru was doing. It took him a few moments, but he knocked on her door when he finally arrived.

"Come in," She said. Leon opened the door carefully, and saw that papers as high as the ceiling were concealing a sighing Mitsuru.

"I hate to disturb you," He apologized, "But I wanted to see how you were doing."

"As you can see," She smirked, "I have yet to make any kind of progress with this work, and I have a feeling that I won't for a long time."

"If you don't mind me asking," He continued, "But what is all this paperwork for anyway?"

She replied, "Things to do with the complex, school work as well, finances. The works."

"Perhaps I could be of assistance. My father was part of the I.R.S, and he taught me some of the tricks of the money game, to quote him. I'm sure that I can handle some of the papers." He said confidently, randomly picking up a pile of papers and skimming through them.

"Is this all?" He asked, chuckling a little. "This is a piece of cake. I can have this done by the time school even starts. No sweat."

"Really?" She asked, doubting his remarks.

"Of course. Just give me a pen and I'll get started."

She gave him a pen, and, with some showmanship, he twirled it around in his hand before marking stuff out and rewriting.

Half an hour before school started, he placed the papers in front of her, and with a big grin on his face, he said, "Finished. And a personal best, if I do say so myself."

Mitsuru checked the records, and she was quite impressed. Everything was balanced and organized.

"This is...amazing, to say the least. Can I keep you?"

He laughed at that and said, "You may, but I need to get ready for school. It's a fifteen minute walk, and it takes me at least ten to get ready. And I have a feeling that it's going to be longer since I have to help Giselle."

"Alright, but you'll have some more papers to fill out when you get back."

"As long as those will be the last ones, I don't care." He replied. "Now," He said, "If you'll excuse me, I have to go and get everything ready." And with that, he turned and began his walk to his room.

He passed his room and remembered that Giselle was in there. Leon knocked on Giselle's door to see if she was awake. She was not.

"Go away," Leon heard Giselle grumble.

"Now now, is that anyway to talk to the guy who saved your life?" He asked, feigning a hurt tone.

"Let me sleep." She said in a dangerous, yet sleepy, tone.

He realized that he was going to have to drag her out of bed if he wanted to get to school on time. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a lock-picking set he had gotten for his birthday(He locked himself out of his own house quite often) and began to mess around with the door's lock.

_Can't believe I lost my key to my own room. As long as Mitsuru never finds out, I'll be okay._

Thanks to his expertise, Leon managed to pick the lock in under a minute. He carelessly opened the door and shouted, "Rise and shine!"

That was his biggest mistake of all time. What he saw was a sleeping Giselle still in bed, but with nothing but her undergarments on, exposing her beautifully flawless tanned skin.

His cheeks were tinted a rose-pink color as he covered his eyes and blurted out, "Sorry!"

With agility unbeknownst to him, Giselle jumped out of bed and began to push him out of his room, saying, "Out! Out! Out!"

She slammed the door in his face, leaving a dazed Leon outside of his own place. "Uh...see you at school then," Was all he managed to say with his mind in a hazy state.

**That's probably the worst I'm going to do with scenes like that.**

**I apologize if that scene is a little too...graphic for my readers.**

**Sorry for the short chapter as well.**

**Thanks to all of you who read this, put it into your story alert, and reviewed it as well.**

**Please review, it'll make my writing efforts worth it.**

_English lesson for the day: a comma and a fanboys (For. And. Nor. But. Or. Yet. So) acts like a period. _


	4. Leon and Giselle

Chapter 4

Leon & Giselle

**Gekkoukan High**

School had just been let out, and everyone was relieved. No one, more so, than Leon and Giselle. Neither one of them had said a word to each other, for they had been too embarrassed to so much as even glance at one another.

Whenever he tried to make eye contact, all he could think about was what happened that morning, and his face would instantly go pink. Thankfully, however, no one noticed the drastic changes between them and didn't ask what happened. But, they did ask about her limp, and Leon provided them with the story that Mitsuru gave him.

_I know that it's stupid to let something as trivial as...that, to dictate how I act around Giselle, but these damn hormones. I need to talk to her later, try and smooth things over._

As Leon exited the school, he was approached by Giselle, and she still had an embarrassed look on her face.

_Better now than never. _

"Hey Leon," She said quietly, her eyes never meeting Leon's.

Leon immediately put his hands up and exclaimed, "I'm really sorry about this morning. If I had known, I wouldn't have done it."

Giselle smirked, "Well, now you know better."

"Yes ma'am."

Then she giggled, "Oh Leon, you're so funny when you're trying to be polite."

He sighed inwardly, "Who said I was trying?"

Then he asked, "So, we cool?"

"Yea," She replied, "We're cool."

**Filler.**

**Sorry, but I will post a longer chapter next time.**

**-Zane Cross**


	5. Weeks

Chapter 5

Weeks

Weeks had passed, and things were still uneventful for Leon. To be blunt, he was bored out his skull, and he was hoping—no, praying—that something would happen. Anything, like a unique shadow to attack them, or the school clubs to re-open. He desperately wanted the athletics department to hold tryouts because he wanted to join the tennis team; he was good at tennis. Sure, the school year was going well for him, but he didn't find anything that the teachers said that even remotely interested him.

Giselle was busy doing other things with her friends; Mitsuru was still buried underneath piles of paperwork; Akihiko was busy training for the other fights; and amazingly enough, Junpei went off to college. All the while, Leon was tired of doing the same things over and over again. Even his training had left him with little satisfaction.

_I grow stronger each day, but that means little to me if my opponents are the same weaklings every few days...I need a stronger opponent; someone to really test my skill...but who? Good lord, I'm so bored that I'm considering Akihiko or Mitsuru as my foe...they're stronger than me that's for sure; I'm not even sure that I can hold a competition with one of them, let alone both. Mitsuru's Artemisia will freeze me before I get the chance to do anything, and Akihiko's Caesar is way too powerful or me to handle alone...okay, stop thinking about that. They are your teammates for god's sake, and you're thinking about fighting one of them just to alleviate your boredom. Snap out of it!_

To take his mind off what he was thinking, Leon decided to go to the Paulownia mall and see if there was an event that was going on.

If anything, he wanted to see if there might be a contest of some sort. More specifically, a beauty contest. He had overheard someone at the mall saying that there was going to be a contest there, but he didn't know when; and this type of info wasn't going to be public knowledge until the day of the event. Leon wanted to meet the models before they were supposed to go on stage.

He kept walking until he somehow managed to end up in the center of the mall, where the fountain kept spewing its liquid into the pool that surrounded it. Without thinking too much, he sat down on the bench and let his mind go blank. After all, he needed a rest physically and mentally.

Perhaps I'll try one of those spas Mitsuru is always going on about, Leon mused. The way Mitsuru talks about it makes them sound delightful. Then a critical thought: _Delightful? Spas? I think I'm hanging out with the women way too much. I need to let off some steam. No pun intended._

That's when he took note of the three men waiting around the Chagall Cafe, each of them shoved his hands into the deep pockets of his pants. Wonder what they're up to, he pondered.

Leon was about to walk away before a young woman—who turned out to be Giselle—walked out of the cafe; Leon was about to call out to her before the men made their move.

They blockaded her, cutting off all routes of escape. The one in the middle strolled over to her, flexing his inhumanly big muscles in an attempt to intimidate anyone who thought of helping. He nearly succeeded.

If stupidity had a name, it would be Francis Moreno; A.K.A: Frank. He was the single most idiotic person in all Port Island. He had a 0.12 G.P.A, a gym membership, and a rich father who owned the shopping channel on T.V; a recipe for disaster.

Francis was all muscle and no brains; if he spent as much time reading as he did lifting weights, then he'd be a straight A student, and he would still be in college.

Recently, he started using hard drugs. Such as: cocaine, crystal meth and mixed pills as well.

Money was required for all of his things; but when daddy cut his monthly allowance, Frank had to get the money elsewhere. He couldn't get a job; that was below him. He resorted to...you guessed it. Robbing people of their hard earned money just to keep his drug habits alive. Even high school women were to fall victim to this sadistic person.

"Hey pretty thing," Francis said as charmingly as possible. Giselle glanced around worriedly and hoped that she wasn't the one he was talking to. Not the case, sadly.

"What's someone like you doing at a cafe like this? The pheromone coffee increases charm, as it is known, but you don't need anymore charm," He continued on, his voice soothing to any other girl other than Giselle.

_If he's going for the best actor award, then he's certainly headed in the right direction. _Giselle thought with a hind of distraught.

"I was here getting a bite to eat. So, bye," She said, heading off in a direction in which he wasn't. Unfortunately, his friends were in all the directions, so she had to deal with this asshole one way or the other.

Leon heard every word, and he was starting to get worried. Mainly because they made a wall around his friend. That, and the fact that the air they gave off didn't feel...right.

"Oi, Giselle!" He exclaimed, dashing over to her.

When they saw an apprehensive Leon running like mad towards the four of them, Francis decided to cut the crap and get what he came for. He wasn't really worried about a scrawny kid who couldn't even bench-press more than a hundred pounds at the gym.

He grunted to his co-workers to keep the kid busy long enough for him to get the money and get out.

As Leon was sprinting, he thought: _Finally, a challenge worthy of my skill. Too bad I can't use my persona...probably be too easy. _

The two hulks braced themselves, snickering at the charging Leon who had no battle plan whatsoever. I'm just going to wing it, Leon thought.

He dropped down, using the speed he gained to propel himself between the brutes' legs as he slid.

They had no idea what Leon was doing, so they didn't know what to do, but they tried to grab him as he slipped past their defenses.

With amazing agility and speed, Leon brought himself up, and used one of his tricks that he learned a long time ago. He kicked the legs in the shins, making the towering men fall like a house of cards.

On instinct, he punched both of them right in the temples, only hard enough to knock them out.

_Now for Tweedledumber. _

**My apologies for not updating so quickly; I was at Gettysburg and Washington D.C over the course of my vacation. I had major writer's block as well.**

**I hope you enjoyed this.**

**R&R please, it helps this story to grow. **

**I am writing a new story-Code Geass, and I would like a few for it. If you want to submit yours, send me a private message. Thanks.**

**This is the basic layout: Age, name, description, (what the character looks like) background info, skills, fears, and anything else that you feel the need to include.**

**-Zane Cross**


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